What If It Runs in the Family
by Anunkindraven
Summary: Changes in perspective, set after S.2 finale *WARNING* There are hints that more than beatings happened to Stiles at the Argent house, but nothing overt. It's about eventual Sterek and friendships breaking and reforming. It's mostly about Stiles from others perspective. No Beta.
1. Chapter 1

She wondered every time she sat across the table from him if Stiles knew. She didn't think he did. I mean, if you knew that someone had sat outside the door of the room where you were tortured beaten and worse and they had done nothing to help you, would you be going out to coffee with them?

She should feel guilty. She knows that all of this was her fault. It was her fault her mother attacked Scott, her fault that her mother got bitten and killed herself, her fault that she went crazy and joined forces with her grandfather, even though she knew he was crazy and her fault that Stiles was hurt. To have prevented this all from happening all she had to do was stop dating Scott when her mother asked her too. So what if her dad had been a little more wishy washy. He was always easier on her than her mother, but she knew her mum was tense, especially since Aunt Kate's death. She should have just backed off, but she didn't. So now she had to look Stiles in the face every day and pretend that she hadn't heard him screaming and begging and crying and finally just being quiet. Sometimes, she thinks that was the worst part. When he was quiet. That was when she knew her grandfather had broken him. She remembers feeling glad at the time. I mean he's the boy that chose to run with wolves. He got what he was asking for. She thought he was the lucky one of the two of them. He would live through this and so would his father. Her mother and Aunt had died. But when she looks in Stiles eyes sometimes, she thinks that something vital in him died that day too.

She's a good Argent though. She gives nothing away. She never even hints that she knows what happened in the house that night. She pretends to be sorry for everything that happened. She was genuinely shocked to find out what her grandfather had wanted, but she still feels no regret for having stabbed Isaac or wanting to kill Derek. She cries at all the right moments and allows false regret to occasionally pass across her face, but she doesn't mean it. She's not the girl that once loved a werewolf anymore. She'll pretend they are friends, but only because she needs them for information. Ever since what happened, her father has gone back to not trusting her. He doesn't let her in on Hunter business anymore. But she knows there are Alphas and that Gerard is still out there. She wants in on taking both sets of creatures down so badly. Not because she wants to help Scott or Derek or because she owes anyone, but because she is a hunter. This is what she was breed for.

She hoped that Erica and Boyd never came back. They knew what happened in the house. They knew she had been there. Hell they knew that she told her grandfather exactly how to break Stiles down. It had worked on pack in the past. Stiles is more like Derek than anyone is willing to see. They are both just so emotional, sensitive, broken with grief. They just express it differently. Derek feeds off of it and goes into himself; he wallows. Stiles buries it deep inside himself and puts on the sunny happy disposition everyone else sees. So, what had hurt Derek, what had broken him? Well, it could be used to break Stiles too. That's what she had told Gerard. Only there was no Kate anymore and really Stiles wasn't as much about the ladies as he pretended.

It was one thing to coldheartedly plan what happened. It was another to sit and listen to it happening. Weirdly she felt she owed it to Stiles. Owed it to him that somebody knew what happened, even if he didn't know that himself. She's not really surprised that he hasn't told anyone. I mean he's barely even mentioned the beating he took. She thinks he may have mentioned the electric shocks he was given, but he certainly has kept mum about the rest. No hint, nothing. She guesses everyone must have been very distracted that night with Jackson and her grandfather and all that no one even noticed the smell. She smiles softly at Stiles as he rambles on about something cute that Scott has done which somehow is supposed to make her fall in love with him all over again. It's not like she was Jackson, a puppet controlled by her grandfather and Matt with no choices. She chose to try to kill, hell she would have killed Boyd and Erica if her father hadn't interfered. It amazes her how Scott, knowing everything she has done, just forgives her. She stabs Isaac, its fine; she nearly kills the other beta, that's fine too. She was there in the house when his best friend is beaten, but that too is okay and forgivable. It's like because she is cute and bubbly she can be forgiven almost anything. Aunt Kate probably would have lasted a lot longer if she had just been more of a cheerleader type and less of a bitch (well at least on the surface).

Derek and Isaac have forgiven her, because she's Scott's anchor. With the Alphas around, Derek needs Scott to be centered and calm. That's some of Stiles' reasoning too. It's also mostly because of her mother. She is a motherless chick and Stiles is helplessly drawn to them. First Derek, then Isaac, now her. Stiles tries to mother them all or at least acknowledge or try to sublimate their pain from their loss. He wants to fix others to see if he can then fix himself. The irony is that she doesn't feel broken. She feels guilty that her mother is dead, but she feels purposeful. Her mother needs to be avenged, but first the Alphas and then Gerard.

"Hey. You okay?" Stiles asks her. She sends him a sad, wistful smile "It's just hard. I had no idea what my Grandfather was really up to and I think no one trusts me. My Dad just looks at me sometimes. (She knows this will tug his heartstrings.) It's like he doesn't trust me. Like he's looking at a stranger." She has to contain the smirk when she sees the affect her words are having on Stiles. That boy is just too easy to play. "I just want to help. I want to make things right, but no one will tell me anything. I know I can help."

"Of course you can." Stiles says patting her hand and giving it a squeeze. "Don't worry, I'll talk to Derek."


	2. Chapter 2

This is Chapter 2 in the "What if it Runs in the Family series" I know people did not like the bad Allison of chapter 1. It will get worse, but then it will get better. This will likely be an eventual Stiles/Derek story. So please bear with me through the sad or hard parts and go back and read Chapter 1 even if you don't want to.

Across town, Derek is sitting in his den (read the subway car) with Scott. Scott looks nervous about being there. It's only a week or so after everyone found out he had lied his way into their pack and had told Derek that he wasn't his alpha. He knows that Derek has to be super pissed. I mean Stiles was still sort of mad at him about all of it and he hadn't wanted Scott to join Derek's pack in the first place. So if Stiles is pissy, Derek must have a super huge mad on.

So he's really kinda taken aback by Derek's brusque "What's wrong with Stiles." "What?!" He asks all confused. "You're asking me about Stiles?"

"Why is that so hard to believe?" Derek asks him. "When you were pack, so was Stiles. Just because you bowed out, doesn't mean that Stiles has yet and there is something wrong. He's too happy, too up."

"Stiles is always cheerful. It's his thing." He looks at Derek confused. "Stiles is my pack. When I left I took him with me."

"Really Scott? Perhaps you should have researched pack law or talked to Stiles or Deaton about it a bit more before joining my pack. You can't just do that kind of shit with your fingers crossed behind your back and expect no take backs. These things have effects and consequences, to more than just you. But I didn't bring you here to argue about that. I want to talk about Stiles."

Scott feels defensive. He had thought about pack dynamics and about how it would be best to work within the pack to get what he wanted and since it worked with what Gerard had wanted him to do, well all the better. Gerard hadn't said anything about what that meant to his pack. Determined not to let Derek know that he was worried about what this new pack dynamics thing meant about Stiles and Derek's pack and WTF does this involve Allison too? Shit, well now he was wearing his concerned face. So much for playing it cool. Wait what? Derek was looking at him like he expected some kind of answer to some question. "Wait, what?"

"I asked if you thought that Stiles was behaving differently since the whole Argent thing? Or if you noticed that he seemed to be avoiding us all just that little bit more than before?" Derek repeated

"Uhhh...No?" Scott realized that his answer sounded more like a question. So he sat down and really thought about it. "Well, I've been trying to get Alison back, you know? And Stiles has kinda been helping with that, I think. I mean he has coffee with her a lot? He's told me a few times that his Dad his coming home and he wants to be there and hang out with him more that he normally does. Like last Tuesday night when he skipped the pack meeting. You know the one you ended early..." He feels his voice peter out because well, the meeting had ended early because Derek had invited Stiles to that pack meeting and had been surprised when Scott showed up instead. It lead to a little argument where Derek basically told him that he couldn't come back if he wasn't in the pack and with him childishly storming out after saying that he didn't want to be in Derek's stupid werewolf club anyway. Why did h have to bring that one up. Shit, total facepalm.

"Tuesday night? Are you sure?" Derek asks. "Uhh yeah, remember Stiles didn't come and our manly discussion about your pack rules."

Derek glares but then surprises Scott by saying "I went by the police station that night. The officer at the desk on that shift lets me peak at some reports if I flirt enough. I had to bail though because the Sherriff was there. She told me he took an extra shift and would be there most the night."

"So Stiles is lying" He hears himself mutter. "Maybe he just didn't want to come to your pack meeting!" But inside there were burning questions now. Was Stiles lying often? What else was he lying about? When had Stiles started lying to him? I mean he got Stiles lying to his Dad. That's like parent kid stuff. Standard teenage practice, even if it was for non-standard teenage stuff (He doesn't care what Stiles says was meant by the whole Gingersnap movie thingy, he was not a werewolf because of puberty or whatever!) So if Stiles is lying about his Dad being home, it means he's avoiding them, or him or both.

"Has he talked to you at all about his time in the Argent house?" Derek asks him "Has Allison said anything about what Gerard did?"

"No, what would Alison know about what happened. She wasn't there. She was like probably hunting Erica and Boyd." He knew his voice sounded defensive, but he just didn't want the whole Allison is an Argent and therefore the harbinger of evil speech. "No speeches about Argents." He warns Derek with his palm held out. "You are not my Alpha, I don't have to listen to it anymore."

"Jesus kid, get your head out of your wet dreams for like five minutes. I'm asking you because your best friend, not to try and knock your sometimes maybe girlfriend." Scott can tell Derek is starting to get kind off peeved.

"It's Stiles. He never says much about this kind of thing. I mean he said Gerard laid a few punches on him and he was fine." Even to his ears that sounds lame. He'd never pushed Stiles any further on that, but a man as crazy as Gerard only giving Stiles a light beat down as a warning to the pack? Not likely.

He finally looks Derek in the eye "Your right. There is something wrong with Stiles. I can't believe I didn't notice any of this."

"You've been through a lot. We all have. We make mistakes. We need to own them and fix them when we can." The older man tells him.

"Okay, I'll talk to him. I'll try to get some answers." This is the first time he felt he understood why Derek might make a good Alpha some day. What Stiles meant when he said Derek had potential. Well potential to be some OTHER wolfs alpha.

"Let me know what you get. If he stonewalls you, we'll have to try something else, and I think he will stonewall you." Derek says.

"What the hell dude, Stiles is my friend. I'll deal with it."

"Stiles is not just your problem or purview anymore Scott. And honestly you are going to need help with this whether you believe it or not. This is about what's good or necessary for Stiles. This isn't about you or me or our egos. For Stiles, we need to put them aside."

"Okay," Scott agrees and can't believe he is doing so "for Stiles."


	3. Chapter 3

The reason Derek knows that something is more wrong with Stiles than they know is the stillness. When he snarls or pushes at Stiles, he doesn't flinch, or flail. He just goes still. His breathing is even and his heart doesn't do that lurch that it used to which indicated his fear and panic even as Stiles was busy saying he wasn't scared. The problem now was that he really wasn't. Stiles had been jumped, terrified and beaten before. He hadn't stopped being scared. But now? Stiles had stopped being scared, and Derek had started.

When you think of Stiles and how he had jumped into the supernatural world with both hands, you certainly would have thought he was fearless. The truth about Stiles was that he was full of fears, but acted recklessly anyway. He's what people in war times would consider a hero. Someone who acts without thought of their own welfare, but only of those around them. Someone who fought their own fears to protect others less worthy.

So if that was the way Stiles acted when he was afraid, how would he act now that he was no longer scared. Derek really thought that the next time there was a fight (and god knew they were like in for one with the Alphas) that Stiles would not survive. He was Stile's alpha, he needed to protect him. He knew that Scott considered himself to be Stiles Alpha, but he wasn't anymore. When you submitted and gave yourself over to another Alpha, your pack went with you. Your pack became part of the larger pack. Even if you had your fingers crossed behind your back when you submit, it doesn't change that. Derek had know exactly what he was gaining when Scott submitted to him. He was gaining Stiles. That was worth any bullshit that Scott would put him through.

He knew that Stiles had cracked under the Gerard's hands and told him where they were. He didn't blame Stiles. He was human, and if wolves could be bent and made to tell secrets, what hope did a human have. But Derek didn't think that is was just that he had cracked and told on them that has Stiles unable to look him in the eye. It's more than that.

He wished that Stiles trusted him more. He knew that Stiles trusted Scott for the most part, so he had thought it would be better for Scott to find out what was going on. What was up with Stiles. But true to form, Scott picked the wrong time and the wrong place. Scott had broached the subject outside school. In the parking lot. While he got that Stiles was making excuses to avoid seeing them in private, Derek knew approaching Stiles about this in public was definitely a very bad idea. Apparently Stiles agreed with Derek's view point even while Scott hadn't. Derek was really beginning to think that Scott didn't know Stiles as well as he used too. It could be that Stiles had changed, or maybe it was Scott. Derek wasn't certain, but there was a different cadence or rhythm to their friendship. He's not the least bit surprised that Stiles blows off Scott's concerns. That Stiles tells Scott that he is fine, that there is nothing to worry about. He's not even that surprised that Stiles agrees to attend the next pack meeting. He knows that Stiles is just saying that to appease Scott and that Stiles will find an excuse to miss the meeting last minute. But the ruse works. Scott backs down and does shoulder nudges before backing down.

Derek waits until Stiles goes home before approaching him. It's quiet and he knows that the Sheriff is at work. He doesn't approach the way he normally would. He walks to the front door and rings the bell. Of course Stiles answers. He doesn't expect that werewolves know manners and that anyone other than humans would ring his door bell. Derek asks to come in. Uncertain Stiles lets him in. Derek asks for a cup of tea. Because tea is good and soothing, it gives Stiles something to do with his hands and it takes a while for the water to boil.

Stiles stays standing at the kitchen counter. He is facing Derek. Derek looks him in the eyes and doesn't let Stiles drop his gaze. "I am your Alpha. I will take care of you. I will keep you safer than I have been. I will notice when you are missing and will look for you. I will keep the hunters from your door. I know I have let you down. I know you have no faith in me. I hope you will let me earn it back. "

Stiles had dropped his eyes and started to stare at the floor when Derek had mentioned he would take care of him, but raised them again when Derek asked for a chance to earn his trust. "You all just left me there. Everyone was so concerned about Jackson and his being dead. No one cared what had happened to me. I expected that from most of you. I thought that you might come. If not for me then for Boyd and Erica. But you didn't and Scott didn't and it was just me. I survived. I got out alive and I don't want to talk about it."

Derek thought about what Stiles was saying and what he wasn't saying. "We will talk about it Stiles. Maybe not now, but we will. Because this has changed you and I'm worried about what those changes mean. For you, for the pack, for your Dad and for me." He notices Stiles suprise. "What, you think that no one has noticed?" He could tell by the way Stiles looks at him that he is surprised. "You are not scared anymore. Not of me, not of a lot of things. I want to know why that changed."

"What so that you can change it back! Well I'm not going back to being afraid. There are bigger and darker things out there in the night then the big bad wolf. Boohooo. Seriously that's what is upsetting you? I'm not scared of you anymore..." Stiles snort with derision.

"No. I would be okay if that was all it is...was. What is the bigger bad thing in the dark Stiles? I wish you would tell me. I know you're not ready yet, but I am here when you are. Or Scott..." He breaks off as Stiles shakes his head with a wry smile on his face. "Okay, not Scott. You can talk to me. I know what it's like to be so scared and angry that you just think it might be better if you were dead." Stiles looks at him then as if weighing his words.

"What do you want from me?" Stiles asks.

"A chance. A chance to earn your loyalty. A chance to prove I can be your Alpha before you walk away. I want your trust Stiles. I especially want to be able to be there to stop you from doing something that will leave your Dad alone wondering what he did so wrong to deserve his son dying too." He sees Stiles flinch slightly with the last sentence.

"So, you are offering to keep me safe? Even from myself? Is that it."

"Yes. Your instincts are off. You are feeling self destructive. I will protect you, even from yourself if I need to. Why are you hanging around the Argent girl?" He knows that others will see this as a leap in conversation, but it really isn't.

"Why? Scott loves her. You let her come to meetings. Why shouldn't I be her friend?" There is a bite to Stiles' tone.

"Because...she doesn't smell like she used to. Her scent is changed. I let her come to pack meetings because it's smart to keep your friends close..."

"And your enemies closer." Stiles interrupts finishing the saying. "I happen to agree. So what does she smell like now?"

"She smells like Kate." Derek bites out the name. Hating even now having to utter that word.

Stiles just nods like he understands. "I'm not surprised. But I think she is our best shot at getting Gerard." Stiles gets down the mugs from the cupboard along with two tea bags and fixes them each a cup of tea. "I'll give you your shot. But I want to work with you, not in the background. I want to be there when we find him. I want to give the final blows."

"I'll work with you. Meaning I won't leave you out of this. It sounds like you have her more fooled than she has either of us. So we'll work together. But Stiles..." He waits until Stiles is looking at him "I won't let you kill him. Beat him conquer him, sure. But the final blow will come from me." When Stiles looks angry and stubborn he continues "There is your Dad to consider. He's the Sherriff. It's one thing for me to kill, it's another for you. I know your mad/hurt/angry, but I want you to come back from that. Killing is something you can't come back from. I don't want you to know that feeling. You will need to trust me on this Stiles. This is one of those I'm protecting you from yourself things."

"We'll see." Is all Stiles says, but Derek knows he has made points that Stiles will consider. He may not have gotten as far a with Stiles as he would have liked, but they have at least taken two step forward. He knows they have made progress for certain when Stiles asks him to stay for dinner, so he agrees and stays.

When he leaves, he is certain that he has begun to make some in roads for Stiles staying with his pack. It makes him happy. He knows that he needs Stiles in his pack. Both his wolf and he agree on that. Stiles is important. That's the reason Derek stays in the neighbourhood. It's also the reason why he climbs into Stiles' room later that night and finds himself rubbing the young man's back as he sleeps, helping to keep the nightmares at bay. He is gone by morning, because Stiles never fully awakened and he didn't want to embarrass him.


End file.
